Baby John and the Haunted House
by Blue-Starlight92
Summary: John can't see spirits if they're trying to hide from him, but he can feel them almost all the time. At five years old, John, his parents, older sister, and Roxanne the family dog make a move into a new house, but John doesn't like the room at the end of the hall that he gets a bad feeling from, or the person that walks around at night and makes Roxanne growl.
1. Chapter 1

A/N:** The title was supposed to be a cute little placeholder so that I could title the document while I thought of a real title. It stuck.**

**Summary: John can't see spirits if they're trying to hide from him, but he can feel them almost all the time. At five years old, John, his parents, older sister, and Roxanne the family dog make a move into a new house, but John doesn't like the room at the end of the hall that he gets a bad feeling from, or the person that walks around at night and makes Roxanne growl.**

**This is also posted on my tumblr and ao3.**

* * *

John was just starting to get to the point where he didn't want to sit in his seat anymore when they drove into their new neighborhood. They'd been driving for several hours, long enough that they'd already stopped for lunch, which had been fun, but since then they'd been driving long enough that John was tired. His older sister, Rachel, was too, though she hadn't fallen asleep, which wasn't good because when she was tired but not sleeping she got cranky. She wasn't fun when she got cranky.

He was starting to get cranky too, even though he'd slept for a while after lunch. He was tired of sitting, and his back hurt, and their dog, Roxanne, had woken back up and was breathing dog breath in his face. He loved Roxanne a lot: she slept in his bed with him, and had ever since he was old enough for a big boy bed, and she didn't chew up his toys or his books, and she licked his face and made him laugh; but her dog breath was gross.

He didn't want to move. He liked their old house, with the big old tree in the backyard that had a tire swing on it, their happy yellow kitchen where Mom always made breakfast, and the park that was close to the house, and his room with the blue walls and the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling and the window sill where he put his dinosaurs when he wasn't playing with them… Mom said that he could still put his stars on the ceiling in his new room, and they could even paint the room blue like his old one, and there would still be a window sill for his dinosaurs, and if they didn't like the color of the new kitchen, then they could paint it the same yellow as the old one; and Dad said that there was a tree in the new back yard that he could put up a tire swing on, and that there was a park just a short walk away from the new house too… and that was nice, but it wasn't the same. Rachel was upset about having to leave her friends more than anything, even though she'd been told a million times that they were only a phone call away and that they could come and stay during school breaks, but she said it wasn't the same either. John, being four years old, didn't have very many friends; he played with kids in the park, but they only saw each other sometimes, and some of Rachel's friends had younger siblings, but they were either older than him and so sometimes didn't like playing the same games he did, or they were younger than him and too young for him to play with; he had friends in his Sunday school class at church too, but they didn't live near each other, and so they only saw each other once a week… so he didn't think that he felt as bad about moving as Rachel did, but he still didn't like it.

"Kids, look, we're on our street!" Mom said excitedly as Dad turned the car. John didn't see the street sign, the car had been moving too fast for him to look, but before he could ask, Rachel spoke up:

"What's our house number?"

"1313!"

"What's our street?" John asked.

"Hidden Street," they all answered him at the same time.

"Can I take off my seatbelt?" John asked, "I can't see very well."

"Not right now, John, we're still driving."

"I can't see the houses," he did his best to not sound like he was whining. Whining was against the rules, especially on car rides.

"We can go on a walk later, John. You can see the houses then."

"Okay."

He tried not to squirm, but he was tired of sitting! He wanted to see the other houses in the neighborhood, and he couldn't see anything but the roofs or second stories… and then he couldn't see anything when Roxanne got up and stood over him so she could see out the window.

"Roxanne!"

She licked his face.

After a minute or two, Dad pulled into the driveway, stopping once he was all the way in rather than going all the way to the garage, which was behind the house.

"_That's_ our house?" he couldn't tell if Rachel meant it in a good way or a bad way.

"I wanna see!" he tried to get his seatbelt off, the house was on his side, and he could see the roof, but Roxanne was in the way.

"Everyone out of the car!" Dad sounded excited.

John waited while Dad opened the back door on John's side. Roxanne sat down on him, her tail thumping eagerly against the seat back.

"Good girl," Dad told her while he put on her collar and leash, and then put her down on the driveway, slipping her leash over his wrist while he helped John out of the car. "Careful, John, the driveway is steep."

"Okay," John nodded, stretching his arms high over his head as he turned around and got his first look of the house.

The house was big! It was blue with white trim, and it had two stories, where their old house only had one, and the tree in the backyard was so big that John could still see it from the side of the house. The porch wrapped almost all the way around the house, John couldn't see the other side, but on the driveway side, it stopped when it hit the garage.

"It's so big!" John said excitedly, and Roxanne barked.

"Do you two like it?" Mom asked them.

"Yeah!" John said excitedly, turning back around briefly to get Bunny, his stuffed rabbit, out of the car.

"It's so much bigger than our old house! Yeah, I like it, it's cute," Rachel nodded.

"Well, come on, let's go see the inside!"

John held onto his dad's hand as they walked across the lawn, and up the porch steps. John knew the movers had come already; they'd packed up most of their stuff several days earlier, and the movers had come and put it in their big truck, and Dad had gone with them to move all the big stuff to the new house. All that was in the car now was their suitcases, and the things they'd been using for the last few days when they'd been staying at grandma and grandpa's house. So he wasn't surprised with all the boxes in the house, but he looked around in awe at the house itself.

The inside was big too! What Mom had called the entryway had a ceiling that went all the way to the second floor, with a light hanging all the way down so that it wasn't very far above the door, and there was a big window and a shelf above the door so that the whole front part of the house was lit up and bright even without the light on. The stairs to the second floor were to the left of the door, and there was a big room with their dining table, chairs, and the cabinet that his mom kept their nice dishes in, as well as a few boxes already in it. The second floor hallway had railings on both sides so that it was open between the living room and the entryway. There was a hallway on the first floor too, but John's dad led him through it to the living room.

"Wow," Rachel said as she looked around the living room.

The ceiling was high too, and it was so big and bright! John let go of his dad's hand and walked forward, looking up at the windows and the rock that went up the wall where the fire place chimney did.

"Oof!" and he promptly ran into the couch and stumbled back a few feet, falling down lightly.

"Oh no!" Dad laughed and picked him up, standing him back up on his feet, "watch where you're going, John! Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he nodded. His tailbone hurt, but not badly at all. "I forgot about the couch."

They walked from the living room into the part of the kitchen where their family table was (Mom said it was called a breakfast nook, but he thought it was kinda big) and Dad pointed to where the washer and dryer were, and the garage, but they didn't go in. They walked into the kitchen, which was green not yellow, but John didn't mind. It was a nice green.

"Do you want to see Mom and Dad's bedroom before we go upstairs?"

"Yeah!" John nodded eagerly.

"Sure," Rachel nodded.

They walked through the hall, and before they went in Mom and Dad's bedroom, they showed them where the downstairs toilet was.

"Is this your bathroom?" John asked them.

"No, we have a bathroom in our room," Mom laughed.

"Then why are there two downstairs?"

Rachel answered him: "so that when people come over they don't have to use Mom and Dad's bathroom."

John nodded, that made sense. They hadn't had a bathroom like that in their old house; anyone who came over just used his and Rachel's bathroom.

They looked around Mom and Dad's bedroom, it was a big bedroom, with a big closet that they could walk all the way in to, and a large bathroom with a bathtub AND a shower.

"Okay, who wants to go upstairs and pick out their bedrooms?" Mom asked.

"I do!" John and Rachel cried excitedly, dashing out of the bedroom and up the stairs.

"I get to pick first, I'm older!" Rachel said loudly as they ran up the stairs.

John didn't think that was fair, but Rachel _was _older, so maybe there was some "new house" code that she knew about and he didn't.

"Okay, but no take-backs!"

"We put your boxes and furniture in rooms already, but we can always move it!" Dad called up the stairs after them; Mom and Dad following behind them, but walking.

"Okay!" they nodded.

There were three bedrooms upstairs, one on the stair side, and two on the other side, on either side of the upstairs bathroom.

Rachel went into the one on the stair side first. "It's so big!" she laughed, spinning around in the empty room. "It's so much bigger than our rooms at our old house!"

John followed her in, but stopped just inside the door. It _was_ a big room, a lot bigger than his at the old house, and it was cool, with a double window on one wall, and a long nook with another window on the wall at the front of the house. But it felt bad. He didn't know why, but it felt bad. He didn't like it.

He ran out of the room, across the hall, and felt good again.

"Wait for me! I get to pick first!" Rachel called after him, and followed behind.

The bathroom was nice, not very big, but it wasn't small either, and he and Rachel could have their own sink. The room to the left had one double window that faced the side of the neighbors house, and Dad had had all of Rachel's stuff put in it. The room to the right was a little bit smaller, but it had two windows, a double one that faced the side, and a single one that faced the front with a window seat, and all of John's stuff was in it.

"I want this one," Rachel said in her bossy big sister voice.

John pouted and crossed his arms over his chest, hugging Bunny, who was still in his arms in the process; he liked this room and all his stuff was in it already! But Rachel had called picking first.

Mom and Dad were watching them from the doorway.

"Really, Ray?" Mom looked surprised, "we thought you'd like the other room better, it's bigger."

"But this one has more windows! And the closet is bigger. And John said I could pick first!"

John opened his mouth, he didn't say anything… but then he closed it again, and nodded. He had said 'no take-backs' which meant the same thing. He was still pouting, though.

Mom looked at Dad, who nodded.

"Come on, Rachel," Dad said, "come help me get the rest of the stuff out of the car. We'll move the furniture when we get it all in."

"Okay!" Rachel said happily, and bounded out of the room after Dad.

Mom waited until Rachel was down the stairs, and then came in the room, and gave John a hug. "You like this room too, don't you?"

John nodded, and tears started welling up in his eyes, and he hugged Mom tighter, "'s not fair!"

"I know, sweetie," she said as she rubbed his back. "But guess what?"

"What?"

"She's not going to want this room forever. We might start setting everything up and she might realize that she doesn't like the way her furniture goes, or she might decide after she's been in here a while that it's _too_ bright, or when she gets older, she might decide she likes the room across the hall, or she might ask to trade rooms."

"But she knows I like this one better, so she won't."

"She won't do that!" Mom shook her head. "And guess what?"

"What?"

"She's older than you, so that means she'll go to college sooner. And you can always get her to trade rooms when she goes to college."

John knew that it would be a long, long, time before Rachel went to college, but it would be even longer before he did, and he nodded, "okay, Mamma."

"Oh, you're such a sweet boy," she hugged him tight. "Guess what? We can have whatever you want for dinner tonight. And you have all the way until dinnertime to think about it."

"Do we have to go out to eat? Or do we have to stay here and eat?"

"Since we don't have everything unpacked, it would be easier to go out and eat, but we can always unpack the kitchen really quickly, okay?"

"Okay," he nodded.

She dried his eyes off with her sleeve, and stood up, "let's go help Dad and Rachel get everything out of the car, okay? And then you can take Roxanne out in the backyard and let her go potty."

John nodded, and held Mom's hand as she walked him out of the room, down the hall, and down the stairs.

* * *

It didn't take very long to get everything out of the car, and pretty soon John was in the backyard with Roxanne while Mom, Dad, and Rachel moved the furniture and boxes around. He'd found Roxanne's ball when they took everything out of the car, and brought it with them outside. He'd looked around while Roxanne "did her business" as Mom always said, and then threw the ball for her.

"Get it, Roxanne!" he laughed as he threw it. He couldn't throw very far, but that never stopped her from running after it like she did whenever Dad threw it.

The yard wasn't big, but it wasn't small either, about as big as their yard at the old house. And when Dad put up a tire swing in the tree like he said he would, it would be perfect. Roxanne barked happily, running around the yard after the ball and bringing it back; and licking his face whenever he pet her and told her she did good.

The sun was starting to go down when Mom came outside.

"Are you two ready to come in? We finished moving everything."

"Yeah! Come on, Roxanne!" John called her, and laughed when she found the ball first before running back to the porch and up the stairs to the back door, staying next to him.

"Come show me where you want your furniture to go," Mom said, and John followed her upstairs, Roxanne in tow. "Dad wants to go ahead and move it, and once we find a spot for your bed, I can put all the sheets on!"

John looked into the room next to the stairs, and suddenly felt a little scared. He didn't like that room, not at all. And now that the sun was going down, it looked scary. He looked down at Roxanne; she was staring into the room like he was, her ears forward, and she was starting to crouch down, her lip starting to raise…

"Come on, you two!" Roxanne and John both snapped out of it at the same time, hurrying after Mom down the hallway and into John's new bedroom.


	2. Chapter 2

"Mom, can I sleep with you and Dad tonight?"

It was almost John's bedtime, and he was tired; they'd gotten his furniture where he wanted it (his bed, a chest of drawers that had been put in his closet, a short, but long, bookshelf for his books and a few toys and games, and a table with a few John-size chairs) but a lot of his clothes and toys still had to be unpacked (Mom said she would help him in the morning) and they'd gone out to eat (Dad had found a pizza place nearby, and it was good) and then they'd gone grocery shopping afterward because there wasn't anything in their pantry or fridge for breakfast or lunch. When they'd come home, everything had been fine, but John didn't like coming home to the new house yet. He liked the old house, and Grandma and Grandpa's. Mom gotten the bath ready, and he was a big boy so he could take a bath by himself just fine… he just needed help rinsing his hair. Mom had found his pajamas, and he was ready for bed… but he kept thinking about the room across the hall. He didn't like it; he didn't like it at all. Roxanne had started barking while Mom was helping him rinse his hair, and even though Mom said she must've seen a squirrel out the window going to bed, or heard a car outside, John knew that she was barking at whatever was making the room across the hall feel so bad.

"What's the matter, John?" Mom asked as she unmade his bed. "Is it because it's a new house?"

John started to nod, but then shook his head. It wasn't because it was a new house; he slept just fine in Grandma and Grandpa's house, even when it was his first time to spend the night.

Mom knelt down next to him looking concerned, "what's going on?"

"I don't like the room across the hall, there's something scary in it."

"Like a monster?"

"I don't know. When Rachel and I went upstairs when we first got here, I got a bad feeling when I went in that room, and then after you got all of Rachel's and my stuff moved, and you came to get me and Roxanne, I looked in the room and I felt really scared. And Roxanne looked like she was about to start growling, and then she was barking when you were helping me rinse my hair."

"Oh, sweetie, she was barking at a car, or she saw a squirrel in the neighbors tree going to bed. There's nothing in that room to be scared of."

John shook his head, and Mom wrapped him in a hug, sitting down on the floor and pulling him into her lap.

"Do you know what it is?" she asked him.

"What?"

"It's your imagination. You have such a good imagination. And remember before we stayed at Grandma and Grandpa's house when Mom and Dad were watching a scary movie after you went to bed, and you came to ask for a glass of water and you saw some of the scary things?"

John nodded. It was a really scary movie, Mom had to stay with him in his room until he fell asleep because he'd started crying.

"You're remembering the movie, and because it's a new house, your imagination is going craaaaaaaaazy!" she hugged him tight and shook the both of them when she said 'crazy' and John laughed. "See? That's all it is."

"But what about Roxanne starting to growl at it?"

"She was probably sensing how scared you were and was wanting to protect you

"Really?"

"Really. Like how she wakes you up when you have a nightmare and gives you kisses."

John nodded, and Mom smiled.

"See? There's nothing to be scared of. And I need you and Roxanne to sleep in your bed tonight, but I'll leave your door open, and we'll leave our door open so you can call us if you get scared. But you're going to have to be really loud since this is a bigger house, okay? And I'll shut the door to the other room, okay?"

"Okay," John nodded. The way Mom explained it sounded good, but he wasn't too sure. But if she was closing the door to the other room, then nothing should be able to get out.

"There's my sweet boy!" Mom said happily, and kissed him before getting up, "alright, hold my hands, WHEEEEEE!" and pulled him up as well.

She tucked him into bed, and was about to turn the light off before John realized something:

"Mom, we forgot to put my stars up!"

"I knew I forgot something! But they've been in the box all day, I don't think they'll shine very long."

"What if we hold them up to the light?"

"Okay, we can try it."

She had marked on the boxes of John's stuff where everything was, so she found them really quickly, and John was happy that she hadn't told him to wait until tomorrow. He didn't have a nightlight like Rachel had when she was his age, but his stars on the ceiling made him feel better.

When they'd gotten all the stars out and were holding them up to the light, Dad came in.

"What's going on up here?"

"I forgot to get John's stars out," Mom said, and Dad nodded.

"Well, we better get these all juiced up, it's way past your bedtime!"

"Sorry, Dad."

"It's okay, sometimes we just have to stay up a little late," Dad smiled, and lifted John up high towards the light so he could hold his star closer.

They got all the stars juiced up, and Dad got them stuck on John's ceiling where he wanted them to go.

"Okay, NOW it's time to tuck you in!" Mom said as John climbed into bed for the second time.

"Sweet dreams, John," Dad said as Mom pulled the covers back up, and they both kissed him, before Roxanne jumped up at the foot of his bed.

"Alright, lets see how these stars do," Dad said, and then turned the light off. "Alright!"

They were glowing brightly, and John smiled before cuddling Bunny to his chest.

"Good night, John," Mom and Dad said as they left the room.

"G' night!" John told them.

"I'll make sure Rachel knows to make sure the door to the other room stays closed, okay?" Mom said. Rachel was still watching TV, since she didn't have to go to bed as early as John did.

"Okay," John nodded, and closed his eyes.

John slept soundly for the entire night. He didn't have any nightmares, and he guessed that he really had stayed up late because he didn't need water, or to go to the bathroom or anything. He'd fallen asleep almost as soon as he closed his eyes, and hadn't woken up until Roxanne licked his face, and he could smell breakfast cooking even from downstairs.

"I'm up!" John laughed, and Roxanne panted happily, jumping off his bed.

He went to the bathroom and washed his face, while Roxanne sat in the doorway and waited for him. Mom had dug out the step-stool last night when he'd brushed his teeth so that he could reach everything by himself. He hopped down, and walked across the hall archway to Rachel's door.

"Rachel, come on, it's time for breakfast!" John said as he knocked on her door (a little loudly, but she never woke up otherwise!)

"UUUUhhhhhhggggghhhh," came the reply.

John looked at Roxanne and shrugged, and immediately headed out into the main upstairs hallway, Roxanne following behind. He wasn't going to be the one to get Rachel up, she was grumpy in the morning!

Once in the hallway, the part that had railing on either side, however, he stopped short.

The door was open. Mom had said she'd close the door, and she always did if she said she would, and the door was open. Suddenly he didn't feel as happy as he had before. He moved over so that he was out of sight of the doorway, leaning against the railing closest to the front door, and slid along it until he reached the stairs.

"Mom!" John called out, and hurried down the stairs as fast as he could, Roxanne right behind him.

"Good morning, John," she said when he came into the kitchen. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, but the door's open!"

"Huh?"

"The door to the other room! It's open!"

"Well, I did close it last night," she said. "Will you let Roxanne out, and go get Dad? I can't leave these eggs unless we want burnt ones for breakfast."

"Okay," John nodded, and gave her a hug. "Morning, Mamma."

She smiled and hugged him back.

John let Roxanne out, watching her to make sure she walked down the back porch stairs instead of just sitting at the door, before walking into his parents bedroom.

Dad wasn't in bed, but John could hear the blow dyer going, and walked through where their close was and opened the door to the bathroom.

Dad turned when he saw the bathroom door open in the mirror, "hey, John!" he said as he turned off the blow dryer, "what's going on?"

"The door to the other room is open. Mom said to get you to check it out cause she can't leave the eggs unless we want them burnt."

"The door is open?"

"Mom said she closed the door to the other room last night cause it was scaring me. I woke up this morning and it was open."

Dad seemed to remember what Mom had said, and looked a little surprised. "Well, that's strange."

"Can you come look at it?"

Dad nodded, and put down his hairbrush, "just real quick, though, I have to get ready for work."

He followed John out of the bedroom, and up the stairs, where the door to the other bedroom was wide open.

"Well, you're right, it's open," he nodded, and walked in the room. John stayed in the doorway, but didn't go in… of course, they didn't see anything. "I don't think it's proof that there's a monster in the house, though, John. Let me finish getting ready, and I'll get Rachel up and ask her; maybe she left her sweater in here or something and forgot to close it."

John nodded, and followed Dad back downstairs.

John stayed downstairs with Mom while she made breakfast, and Dad got ready for work. She let him help a little, asking him to grab her oven mitt out of the box nearest to the door in the dining room, or carefully grab butter knife from the drying rack next to the sink, or grab the butter and jam, if he could reach it, from the refrigerator. He slid his step-stool (he had another one that stayed in the kitchen) all around, moving it from spot to spot.

"John, will you go let Roxanne in? I'm almost done."

John nodded, and ran over to the back door, where he could see her waiting through the door-window. She panted happily as she came in, hurrying over to where Mom had set down her food and water bowls (in the breakfast nook next to the counter) and then walked into the kitchen when she found the food bowl to be empty.

"John, can you feed Roxanne her breakfast?" Mom called from the kitchen.

"Uh huh!" John nodded, walked over and picked up the empty food bowl, walking over to the pantry, with Roxanne right behind him. She was a good girl, though, and when he opened up the dog food, she waited for him to fill it up.

"Remember, John, just one scoop!"

"Okay!" John remembered, but Mom always told him anyway: one scoop for breakfast, and another scoop and a bit of chicken that was specially made for dogs for dinner. Ever since he'd turned five, he'd fed Roxanne most of the time.

John was putting the dog food away when Dad came out of his and Mom's room and headed up the stairs to wake up Rachel. John hoped Rachel had just dropped her sweater or her sunglasses in that room and had forgotten to close the door, but he didn't think so.

Roxanne followed behind him as he walked over to where her bowls went.

"Sit," he told her, and she did. "Good girl!" he exclaimed as he put the bowl down, and she dug in.

"Thank you, John, you're a big help! Now go ahead and wash your hands; breakfast is almost ready."

Rachel and Dad came downstairs just as Mom was starting to dish up the food onto everyone's plates.

"I didn't open the door John," Rachel said immediately, and John felt like he'd swallowed ice.

"Well good morning to you too!" Mom replied, a frown on her face.

"Sorry Mom; morning," Rachel backtracked.

"Thank you," Mom said, smiling again.

"But I really didn't open the door. You told me to leave it closed," Rachel said.

"Well, it was open when John got up, so let's see if we can figure out what happened, okay?" Mom nodded.

John dried his hands and hopped down from the step-stool.

"It's not the air, I think that would close the door," Dad said. "Maybe the house shifted a little. It's not exactly new."

"That's right, maybe it's the house settling in, like the old one did," Mom said. "Rachel, can you help me set the table?"

"Sure," Rachel nodded.

Dad grabbed a few plates too, and John jumped back up on the step-stool to get forks.

"Does that work, John?" Dad asked.

Mom chimed in, "I must not have closed the door very hard, and so when the house settled in, it opened back up."

John nodded as they all sat down. He wanted that to be right, and Mom and Dad were both really smart, so it probably was.

"Yay! Mystery solved!" Dad and Mom cheered.

Dad said the prayer, and they all started eating. Mom had made scrambled eggs, croissants, and bacon: everyone's favorite, unless they had pancakes instead of croissants, then _that_ was everyone's favorite.

"Mom, can Roxanne have some eggs?" John asked.

"Of course she can," Mom nodded. "Can you give me her bowl?"

John slid off the chair, grabbed Roxanne's bowl (which made Roxanne stand up from where she'd been laying on the floor, and start wagging her tail) and climbed back up in the chair, passing it to Mom. Mom gave her a spoonful of her eggs, Dad put in a spoonful of his, and John put in two, since he knew Rachel wasn't going to share.

John climbed back down, and Roxanne immediately sat down, tail thumping on the floor.

"Good girl!" John told her, and put the bowl back where it had been.

They finished eating, and Dad had to go to work. He kissed everyone goodbye, before heading into the garage.

"Okay, you two, help me clean up and we can keep unpacking!" Mom said, and Rachel and John hopped up (well, John slid out of his chair.)

Cleaning up from eating wasn't really fun, but as Mom always said: the faster it gets done, the faster we can do something fun. So John and Rachel both helped Mom pick up the dishes and put them in the dishwasher, wipe down the table, and wrap up leftovers. With the three of them doing it, it didn't take very long.

"Okay," Mom said once she'd put the leftover croissants in a bag, "let's see who can find their clothes and get dressed the fastest! Brushing hair counts. 1… 2… 3… GO!"

John and Rachel raced to and up the stairs, Roxanne wagging her tail and following behind. When they got to the top of the stairs, John couldn't help but look to his left:

The door was closed, just like they'd left it. He smiled, and ran to his room with Roxanne in tow. Mom and Dad were right, mystery solved!

At least, that was what he wanted to believe, but he didn't think so.


	3. Chapter 3

Mom helped John unpack his clothes and toys in the morning, and she'd put his clothes away for him but had left him to put his toys and books where he wanted them to go so that she could keep unpacking the rest of the house. Roxanne stayed in his room with him, laying on the floor watching him at first, and then after a while she jumped up on his bed and fell asleep. He put his books and games and puzzles and most of his toys on the shelves, exactly where they had been at their old house. Cause he liked it that way, even though it was a new house, and besides all his animals probably liked it that way too, and so he'd keep it like that. Except for the top, because the lamp had to go in a different spot so that it could plug in, so that meant that he had to put his trains around it instead, but that was okay. His coloring books and box of crayons went on the table, and his dinosaurs went on the windowsill, which was nice and wide and could hold all of them even if the blinds were closed, just like they had at the old house. He had to stand on one of his chairs to reach the windowsill, but that was okay because they were small chairs (Dad liked to say "John-sized" because he was the only one in the family who wasn't too big to sit in them: if Mom or Dad came in to sit down, they moved the chair and sat on the floor) and even if he fell it wouldn't be very far. But he didn't fall ever because he was very careful. It didn't take him very long to put everything up; he didn't know how long exactly because he didn't have a clock in his room even though he could tell time, but he didn't think it took very long.

"Roxanne! You gotta get up so I can make the bed!" It was what Mom always said before she taught John how to make his own bed, and when he'd said it, Dad had laughed and when John had asked why Dad had said that John was just like Mom. But Mom was a girl and John was a boy so that didn't make sense. Or maybe Dad had meant that John acted like Mom. That was probably right. Mom sometimes said that John acted like her, so that definitely made it right.

Roxanne, as always, jumped off the bed and laid right back down on the floor. John made the bed as neatly as he could: sometimes he got lazy and let the sheets get all wrinkled, but that never felt good when he went to bed at night, so he made sure that the sheets didn't get wrinkled and he tucked them in nicely. At first he hadn't wanted to learn how to make his bed, but Mom said it was a big help, and so he always made sure to make his bed in the morning. Just not right after he woke up cause then he was hungry. When the comforter was pulled up like it should be, and his pillow straightened and looking nice, John put Bunny on the bed like always. He had some other stuffed animals too, but they all stayed on the shelf because when he tried to keep them on the bed they always fell off at night because he only held onto Bunny, and so he'd put them on the shelf where they would be safe. He still played with them a lot, and so it wasn't like they were lonely, either.

"Mom! I'm done!" John called as he walked down the stairs, Roxanne right behind him because she'd jumped up when he left the room.

"Already?" Mom called back from the kitchen. He could hear her unpacking the rest of their pots and pans: they sounded so different from anything else if they scraped together or hit each other.

"Yeah," John nodded, even though she couldn't see him. "Do you wanna come see?"

"Sure!"

She got up and followed behind him as he walked back up the stairs and up to his room.

"It looks great!" she told him, and John smiled. "Most of it's like it was at the old house, it'll be easy to find everything that way!"

John nodded, "and all the animals like it best this way."

"They do? I didn't know if they'd be tired of being there the whole time."

"They're not… at least I don't think so…" John looked at his shelf of plush animals worriedly; they weren't bored of sitting like that were they? John didn't _think_ so, since he'd put them next to their best friends (well, as best as he could: Alan the koala was best friends with his brachiosaur dinosaur but they couldn't sit together because Alan had to stay on the shelf since he'd fall off the windowsill, and his brachiosaur couldn't sit with Alan on the shelf cause he'd miss all his other friends on the windowsill) and so he didn't think they were tired of sitting like that…

"John, I think they're fine," Mom said after he'd been staring at the animals thinking for a few minutes.

"Oh, okay!" John smiled again; glad he didn't have to worry about it.

"Rachel should still be unpacking for a while; how about you go outside with Roxanne for a little bit? Then Rachel and I will take a break and we can all have lunch."

"Okay!" John nodded happily, "come on Roxanne!"

She followed him out of his room and down the hall. John looked back when he was halfway down the stairs and realized that she wasn't right behind him anymore, but still paused at the top of the staircase, staring at the closed door to the other room. He looked up at Mom, who was still up in the hall, and she looked at him and shrugged, before saying:

"Go on, Roxanne!" and startled her. Roxanne perked up again, and followed down the stairs after John, wagging her tail again like normal.

John still looked up at Mom.

"She probably just saw some dust floating. Like how she tries to get the bugs in the yard or when we go walking," Mom explained.

John nodded, but he wasn't sure. He was scared all of the sudden and wanted to get out of the house for some reason. He hurried to the back door, Roxanne trotting behind him, and opened the door quickly, closing the door after Roxanne. He had a weird feeling like he'd just escaped something.

John stayed outside with Roxanne until lunch. Dad hadn't put up a swing like he'd promised yet (John knew he hadn't had time to, of course, since it was only their first day here) but John was perfectly happy to throw the ball for Roxanne, or roll around with her in the yard (there was a spider web underneath the porch deck, and after finding it John had actively avoided it: he thought spiders were neat and all but he didn't want to get bitten.) He'd fallen asleep with her under the tree (it was warm outside, but not too warm yet, and the comforting heat made him sleepy) and didn't wake up until Roxanne began to lick his face when Mom came out to come get him for lunch.

Lunch was good, and afterward Mom let him watch TV while she and Rachel unpacked more. John thought about asking if he could help, cause Mom was always happy when he helped out, but Mom was unpacking the last of the dishes, and she always said he was too young to help with dishes yet: the last time he'd tried he had broken several plates and saucers because he'd taken too many, they were heavy, and he'd tripped over the rug. So when he helped in the kitchen, it was getting food out for Mom, and getting silverware from the drawer, except that he had to be careful with the knives because they were sharp. And she wasn't cooking or unpacking silverware, so he already knew what her answer would be. Also, he was watching a show about sharks, and those were always cool no matter what kind of shark they were talking about, so he didn't really want to get up.

About halfway through the show, Mom moved to the dining room, but didn't stay there long, although he could hear her talking to herself about how much she needed to clean, and towards the end of the show she sat down and finished it with him.

"Once it cools down, do you want to go on a walk?" she asked him.

Roxanne perked up, looking at her hopefully.

"Not yet, Roxanne. It's not time yet," she told her, and Roxanne put her head back down with a sigh.

"Yeah!" John nodded. He hadn't been able to see all the houses when they'd first come to the house, and it was too dark after dinner to see anything, so he wanted to see the houses. Besides, Dad had said there was a park nearby! "Can we go to the park?"

"Sure we can!" she nodded. "It's not too far, and it's right by the school you'll be starting at this fall, so we should probably check it out."

John nodded. He was mostly excited about starting school; he liked learning things and figuring stuff out. Grandma and Grandpa said he was very smart for his age, he could read and tell time and remember big words, but Rachel said that grandparents were supposed to say that stuff. When he'd asked Mom about it she said that while not all grandparents were nice, yes they generally were supposed to say that stuff, but that he was smart for his age. John didn't mind either way, he just liked learning things. Especially about dinosaurs. And sharks. And Bible class lessons. And dogs. And… there was a lot he liked learning about.

He was a little nervous, though, because going to school meant he wouldn't be able to stay home with Mom and Roxanne when Mom didn't have to work, or go over to Grandma and Grandpa's when she did. He knew that, school or no, he wouldn't be able to go over to Grandma and Grandpa's house very often anymore, but he still wouldn't be able to stay home with Mom and Roxanne and he hadn't been away from them very often at all, and now in the fall he would be gone all day. But maybe if school was nice it would be okay.

"Okay, well I'm going to go in Dad's and my bedroom and start unpacking some more in there. How about one more show, and then it'll be time to give it a break for a while?"

"Okay!" John nodded.

During the second show (it was one about lions) Rachel came downstairs and asked Mom where the hammer and pins were, and then found them before going back upstairs. After that, he could hear her hammering on the wall, and so when the show ended, he turned the TV off and went upstairs, letting Roxanne sleep on the couch.

"Can I come in?" John asked Rachel when he got to her room. Rachel always got mad at him if he didn't ask, even though he hadn't touched any of her stuff ever since he was very little.

"Yeah," she nodded. She was standing on her bed, with posters still rolled up at her feet, and she was trying to avoid stepping on them. "What's up?"

"What are you doing?"

"Hanging up my posters. See, I did those two already, and the picture frames," she pointed to where she had two horse posters and some small picture frames of her and her friends hung up above her headboard.

"You can use the pins Mom sews with for that?"

"Yeah! They're really strong, you can just hammer them like nails, and they don't make big holes in the posters, either."

"Neat!"

Rachel smiled at him, but after a second asked: "do you really think there's something in the spare room?"

John nodded.

"Just because the door opened in the middle of the night?"

John shook his head, he did think that the door opening in the middle of the night was because of whatever was in the room, but it wasn't just because; "no. It feels weird. Like there's something bad in it. And Roxanne keeps acting funny too."

"I still agree with Mom and Dad: it's just because it's a new house."

John sighed, disappointed.

"But I'll tell you something that'll make you feel better," Rachel said suddenly.

John looked up at her again, listening.

"When I was your age I thought there was a monster under my bed. I'd make piles of stuff around my bed and everything, so it couldn't get out and get me. And one night, I think I'd been watching Veggie Tales before bed or something, I got off my bed and moved one of my piles and I told it to go away and leave me alone."

"And you weren't scared after that?"

"Nope! Mom and Dad were really happy too, especially since I finally cleaned my room!" Rachel laughed, and John did too. "So why don't you go try it. You don't have to wait until it gets dark out or anything; just go up to the room, open the door a little, tell whatever's in there to go away and leave you alone, and close it."

"Okay," John nodded.

He left Rachel's room just as Roxanne came up the stairs; apparently having woke up and realized that John wasn't on the couch any more.

"Come on, Roxanne, let's do this."

Roxanne stayed next to him as he walked up to the door, and he could feel her brushing up against his legs as he opened the door just wide enough to stick his face in.

It still felt bad, even just opening it this much, and he could feel that Roxanne's tail had stopped wagging and knew that if he looked down she'd be really alert with her ears up and her eyes focused.

"Go away and leave me alone," he said into the room. It came out sounding really small and scared. He tried again:

"Go away and leave me alone! …Please," he said, and closed the door quickly. There, that sounded better.

He and Roxanne walked down the hall, and Rachel poked her head out of her room.

"All good?" she asked.

John nodded.

The rest of the day went by quickly. Rachel wanted to finish up on her room, saying that she was almost done and she wanted to get rid of all the boxes (and also asking if she could have new curtains since she had more windows now and could they go shopping this week) so it was just Mom, John, and Roxanne when they went out on a walk. It was fun: there were a lot of houses, and so John hoped that there might be some kids his age and maybe they could be friends.

There was no one at the park when they got there, except for a few guys in the field separating the park from the school and its playground who were all kicking a football around. Still, the park was fun. There were lots of trees for shade so it wasn't very hot, and Mom pushed him on the swing, and Roxanne jumped up and tried to grab his shoes every time he swung high, which made him laugh. She also jumped on him when he went down the slide, and she looked up at him worriedly when he tried the monkey bars, even though Mom was right there, ready to grab him because he wasn't very good at them yet, so when he slipped she caught him before he could fall.

After a while Mom wanted to go back home and start dinner, and so they went back. By the time they got home, Rachel had finished unpacking, and wanted Mom to see it, and said John could come and see too, if he wanted.

"It looks good! I'm surprised you got it all done today!" Mom said, looking around. "And the bookshelf looks very nice, it doesn't look cluttered like it did before when you arrange your stuffed animals like that, and your art supplies look good on your desk, and the posters… did you get all your sewing stuff out of my boxes downstairs?"

"Yeah!" Rachel nodded, crawling under her bed and dragging out a big plastic bin.

"Very nice! I like it a lot," Mom complimented. "I'm going to go start dinner; John, can you come feed Roxanne? She looks hungry."

"Okay!" John nodded, and followed Mom out

Roxanne followed John around while he got her dinner ready. But she was very good and didn't jump on him or trip him, she never did, just followed behind him, panting and wagging her tail, while he poured the dry food into her bowl, and handed the wet food to Mom to microwave, since the microwave was on the counter and Mom didn't want him to use it by himself yet. She handed the heated wet food, and a fork, to John and he stirred it, with Roxanne looking more and more excited by the second, before following him eagerly to where her food bowl went and digging in when he put it down for her. He giggled: she was always so funny at dinner time!

He helped Mom make dinner, scooting his step stool around the kitchen to get things for her. He got food out of the refrigerator or pantry, mostly, or handed her the silver wear or whatever he could get to in the drawers. But there really wasn't a lot: Mom was the one who took care of the kitchen, and she kept a lot of stuff out on the counter: she had a lot of spatula's in a jar (John liked them because they were all different colors and sizes: some were really big and others were teeny tiny) and wooden spoons and metal whisks in another jar (those made John think of Grandma cooking) and different things for baking and oven mitts (those had hung on hooks on the wall at the old house and Mom hadn't put the hooks up yet) and stuff to put hot pots and pans on so they wouldn't burn the table or counter... there was a lot, and so there really wasn't very much that he could get to so that he could bring it to her. But he liked it because it made the kitchen colorful, even if Mom said it was hard to keep neat sometimes.

After a little bit she washed her hands and put the chicken in the oven; telling him to let Roxanne outside, and that he could go play in his room until it was time to eat. Roxanne jumped up as soon as she heard "outside" and followed John to the door. He watched her through the window in the door to make sure that she went down into the yard and didn't just sit on the porch, but she did, and he went upstairs like Mom had told him.

He came down again when Dad came home, and Rachel did too:

"Dad!" they both chorused, running into the kitchen to give him a hug.

"Hey you two! How was your day?" he asked.

"I got my room all unpacked!" Rachel said excitedly.

"I got mine unpacked too!" John echoed. "And Mom and I took Roxanne to the park!"

"How was the park?"

"It was fun! There weren't any other kids there, though."

"I'm sure you'll meet some new kids soon; now let's go see these rooms!"

They ran up the stairs, Dad following close behind.

"Come see mine first!" Rachel said excitedly, and Dad nodded.

The rest of the evening wasn't too different from their routine at their old house. Dad liked their rooms a lot, which made John happy. Mom was putting dinner on the table, with Rachel's help, by the time Dad had changed out of his work clothes, and after dinner Mom and Dad spent most of the time unpacking while John and Rachel watched television, and argued over what channel they were watching. Rachel won, of course, because she was older and because John didn't like to argue, and so he spent most of the evening playing with Roxanne.

Everything was just fine while Mom helped John get ready for bed, Roxanne nearby as always, and calm as she could possibly be. She licked stray droplets of water off of his arms, and sniffed his hair when he got out of the bath, which made John laugh. When John got dressed for bed, she rolled over on her back for him to rub her belly, and wiggled back and forth ("wiggling like a worm!" Mom always said) when Mom wiggled her fingers and walked closer to her:

"I'm gonna get yoooouuuu! I'm gonna get yyooooouuuuu!" Mom cooed at her, and she wiggled even more when Mom finally started tickling and rubbing her belly.

She jumped on the bed and laid down, nice and quiet, while John said prayers, and sprawled out contentedly when Mom tucked John in for bed. He fell asleep with her watching him contentedly, her middle expanding and contracting with each sleepy breath. Everything was fine, what Rachel said had worked.

John woke up in the middle of the night to find Roxanne standing over him, her legs on either side of him. She wasn't looking at him, though, but was staring at the darkened hallway. And that's when he noticed that her ears were forward, her tail still, hair standing on end… and that she was growling. And that was when he heard it:

It wasn't Rachel's door, he knew it was the door to the other room. He could hear it open and close, open and close, open and close… and then footsteps.


End file.
